Elementary Track and Field

Coaches: Graeme Fell, Adelle Johns, Mike Clapson, Danielle Douglas, Theo Hunt, Rhiannon Evans, Jordan Maynard & Kirsten Lee

This age group encourages athletes to try all event areas both in practices and competitions. Early season includes sprint training, introductory plyometrics, circuits and agility activities with a emphasis on fitness but fun. Starting in December, after the completion of the cross-country season, athletes are offered four training sessions a week. Practice time is 1 1/2 hours in duration. Competitions run from March through to July and are offered throughout the Lower Mainland and around BC. While athletes are encourage to compete, this is done while taking into consideration their physical and emotional maturity.

Email: graeme@thunderbirdstrack.org

Winter Training

From Mid- November onwards, following the completion of the Cross-Country season, we will be offering 4 practice days. Each practice will include some sprint, aerobic and general fitness components and will gradually focus on more event specific skills. Athletes are encouraged to attend all of the practices so that they can develop good, all around skills and fitness. The practice schedule is as follows:

Monday: 5:45pm at Lord Byng

Wednesday: 5pm at Point Grey

Thursday: 5:45pm at Lord Byng

Saturday: 10am at Saint Georges

Please make sure that you come dressed for both inside and outside training, as, weather permitting, we will head outside as often as possible for warm-ups, hills and warm-downs.

From March 31st to July 29th onwards practice times are as follows: 

Monday - Saint George's Senior School 5:30pm

Wednesday- Point Grey Track 5:30pm

Thursday – Saints 5:30pm

Saturday – Meet or Saints at 10am

(Note: there will be no workout on a competition day)

Meet Schedule:

The focus for the Elementary/JD Program is to gradually introduce athletes to competition.  We hold low key Intra-Club Meets held to introduce the athletes to competition.  The competition season for clubs overlaps that for schools; the school season ending in late May, the club season ending in late July; the major meets being the BC JD Pentathlon Championships and JD Championships. (see details below for sample from last year)

The focus for the athletes all meets should be on enjoying the experience and learning how to do their best in a variety of events and challenging themselves to improve their own marks. We will be encouraging the athletes to pursue Provincial Crests that can be earned by establishing marks in a variety of events. We will be providing the following opportunities for the athletes to compete. Those in bold will be meets that Thunderbird Coaches will attend. On these days no practice will be held. The other, non-bold, meets are opportunities that exist but not ones the club is focussed on (coaches will not be at these meets).

Emails inviting athletes to sign-up for meets.

The following is the 2014 Meet Schedule.

Please note that to balance training with competition, the club will only be entering athletes in the follwoing meets, alternate weekends we will use for training.

JD Events – Spring /Summer 2014


Apr 12

MEC Vancouver Race #3 5k, 10k

events.mec.ca


Apr 26

VOC Elementary Track Meet – UBC

voc.bc.ca


May 10

Eagle Classic Track & Field Meet - Maple Ridge

golden-ears.org


May 23-25

BC Elementary Track & Field Meet - Richmond

kajaks.org


Jun 7-8

Jesse Bent Memorial Cheetah Meet - Coquitlam

coquitlamcheetahs.org


Jun 13

Longest Day 5k – Volunteering

thunderbirdstrack.org


Jun 22

BC JD Pentathlon Champs - Maple Ridge

golden-ears.org


Jul 5-6

Trevor Craven Memorial Meet - Burnaby

norwesterstandf.com


Jul 10

Harry Jerome Track ClassicBurnaby - Volunteer

harryjerome.com


Jul 25-27

BC JD Track & Field Champs - Surrey

universalathletics.ca